Footwear



- H. c. HEBIG 1,959,359

FOOTWEAR Filed Deo. 28. 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l May 22, 1934. H c', HEBIG1,959,359

FOOTWEAR Filed Dec 28, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 22, 1934PATENT OFFICE FOOTWEAR Henry Conrad Helbig, Miami, Fla., assigner offifty-live per cent to Nelson Littell, New York,

Application December 28,1929, serial No. 417,055

13 claims.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in footwear,particularly, bathing shoes, lounging slippers or sandals madesubstantially of sponge rubber and is a continuation in part of mycopending application Ser. No. 389,341, filed August 30th, 1929, PatentNo. 1,742,176, dated December 31, 1929.

It is the principal object of this invention to construct a pair ofbathing sandals lounging slippers, or bedroom shoes substantiallyentirely out of sponge rubber for use in bathing to prevent slipping onsmooth surfaces and to provide comfortable lounging slippers, asdescribed in my said v previous application now Patent No. 1,742,176.

These shoes may be constructed only partially out of sponge rubber andpartially of other materials such as vulcanized rubber.

It is another object of my invention to provide a bathing sandal or shoehaving a sole of porous v:all

sponge rubber, which does not slip on smooth surfaces and which is easyfor the foot to slip into and out of.

Another object of my invention is to provide a sponge rubber shoe inwhich the normal skin on commercial sponge rubberV is retained on oneportion of the inside of the shoe and is removed from another portion.,p

Another object of my invention is to provide a sponge rubber shoe orlounging slipper which is entirely porous in one portion and which isprovided with a smooth surface on another portion to permit readyinsertion of the foot.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sponge rubber slipperhaving a sponge rubber sole on which the normal smooth skin is retainedon one portion to facilitate the insertion ofthe foot and is removedfrom another portion for insuring porosity and to absorbr perspirationofthe foot.

Other objects of my invention will' appear from the followingdescription thereofv taken in connection with'the attached drawingsillustrating preferred forms of embodiment thereof and in which:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of an all sponge rubber shoe.

Figure 2 is a center section through the shoe shown in Figure 1, takensubstantially on the line 2-2.

Figure 3 is a top plan view of a modified form of an all sponge rubbershoe.

Figure 4 is a center section through the shoe shown in Figure 3, takensubstantially on the line 4-4.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a sponge rubis more comfortable towear than the ordinary bedroom slipper and which when used for bathingis especially suitable because of its sponge rubber construction andwhich will effectively prevent slipping on any wet soapy surface, suchas the floor of a turkish bath or in a bath tub or shower and which isvery useful at the beach, where the combined sand and water wouldnormally destroy other materials.

In the use of sponge rubber shoes and slippers, it is desirable to havethe porous and absorptive sponge material in contact with the feet asthis provides a more healthful shoe. On the kother hand, sponge rubberhas a clinging effect and is somewhat difficult to pull on and off thefoot due to the tendency of the spongy material to cling to that portionof the foot or stocking which it touches. Where the natural smooth skinof the sponge ,rubber is left on the interior of the foot, thisdifficulty is overcome andthe foot slides into and out of the shoe orslipper, but the skin is less pervious than the porous sponge materialand therefore reduces the porosity and absorptive effect. I havetherefore found itdesirable to combine these two features and provide ashoe in which a portion of the interior thereof isA proporous permittingair to pass readily through the shoe and ventilate the foot and which isalso absorptive and which willtake up any perspiration of the foot. Thiscombination of `rubber and rough-textured sponge can be worked out inmany forms, of which the present drawings illustrate only a few.

In a preferred form of construction as shown in Figure 1, the shoe orslipper 10 is made out of porous sponge rubber and it particularlycomprises the upper portion 10a and the lower or sole portion 10b. Theseportions may be formed from a single block of sponge rubber althoughthey are preferably formed in separate parts and glued or cementedtogether.V The opening 12 is adapted to receive the foot of the wearerand the resilience of the rubber is sufficient to cause the shoe tocling to the foot.

The shoe may be formed by molding or cutting but the preferred manner isto cut pattern soles from a block of sponge rubber by the use ofsuitable dies. The uppers are similarly formed and are then glued orcemented to the sole portions. The uppers may be cut to different shapesand combined in this manner with the soles to form a finished shoeproduct. Any commercial glue or cement that is suitable may be used.Such cement frequently adheres with greater resistance than the strengthof the rubber itself so that tearing is prevented.

With the formation of separate sole and upper portions, the shoe may bemade more nearly according to size and will have a better shape andappearance. It is also possible to remove the skin where desired, as forexample, from the upper and still leave the skin on the foot contactingside of the sole portion, or to form the upper of porous sponge rubberand the sole of smooth vulcanized rubber or vice versa.

When placing the shoe on the foot it will be found that thesponge rubberinterferes with the insertion of the foot because of its high co-efcientof friction and to obviate this it is desirable to leave the skin 14 onthe sole portion or to form the sole portion of smooth vulcanized rubberso that the foot may slip readily into the shoe. This skin is a naturalformation on artificial sponge rubber and it is merely necessary toleave it on the sole portion and to remove it from the upper portion10a. It is also desirable to remove it along the edge of the soleportion adjoining the upper portion so that a more firm contact will behad in the cemented joint between the upper and the sole.

With the skin removed from the inside and also from the outside of theupper portion, the shoe is porous and the foot will not perspire aswould be the case in a non-porous rubber shoe. As the skin has also beenremoved from the bottom of the sole, the shoe has a good Contact withthe surface and does not easily slide. Being porous, however, it doesnot stick to the surface and can be raised and moved with facility.

A modified form of construction is shown in Figures 3 and 4. In thisconstruction the skin has been removed from the surface of the soleportion 15b but has been retained on the upper portion 15a. The skin 16thus appears on the entire under-surface of the upper permitting thefoot to readily slip into the shoe in the portion 17.

In this construction the sole portion is fully porous and the water willpass through the sole which makes it of advantage in a shower or inother bathing., With the porous sole 15b there is also no chance forperspiring when the shoe is used as'a lounging slipper although the skin16 on the upper permits the foot to be inserted into the shoe withconsiderable ease. The sole portion 15b in this construction is fullyporous and differs from the sole portion 10b in Figure 2 in that thesole portion in Figure 2 is porous and prevents formation of a vacuumalthough the waterwill not penetrate through the skin 14.

A further modified form is shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7. The all spongerubber shoe 30 is provided with the upper portion 30a and the soleportion 30h. As before mentioned, the upper and sole portion may beformed by cutting patterns from blocks of articial sponge rubber and thesole portion as shown in Figure 6 may be laid out and cut from one blockof artcial sponge rubber and a suitably cut upper portion laid out andcut from another similar block of rubber may be cemented thereto. Inthis modification, however, the skin 32 has not been entirely removedfrom either the upper or sole portions 30a and 30b respectively. Theskin, however, has been partially removed to permit increased porosityand so that the air may penetrate the shoe and so that perspiration andother moisture may be absorbed by the sponge rubber.

In the upper portion the skin 32 has been retained in angled stripswhich progress from the top downward and forward. This is the naturaldirection of movement of the foot and the foot therefore contacts withthis angled strip so that the foot will readily slip into the shoe.Between the angled strips the skin has been removed and the shoe istherefore substantially porous throughout such a large portion of itsarea that perspiration of the foot is readily absorbed.

The sole portion 30h particularly shown in plan View in Figure 6 showsthe preferred cutting and removal of the skin to aid the foot inslipping into the shoe. In this c-onstruction the white strips are thestrips of skin 32 which are separated from each other by strips ofsponge rubber 34. As shown in Figure 7, the strips 34, appearing inFigure 6 are in reality depressions in the sponge rubber block and thestrips 32 are the stripsof the integral skin. By cutting off the surfaceskin which is non-porous the strips 34 of sponge rubber appear and theseare porous and open up porous conduits throughout the block of rubber.

The strips 32 of skin extend substantially longitudinally of the sole.This is also for the purpose for facilitating and aiding the insertionof the foot in the slipper. The natural course of the foot is forwardand as the sole of the foot contacts with the projected skin stripswhich are smooth, the foot will readily slide into the shoe. With theskin removed, between the strips however, the shoe is fully porous both-on top and on the bottom and has material advantages when in use.

In bathing or in using as a lounging slipper it is particularly light,comfortable, durable, warm to the touch and ventilated. It is noiselessfor walking, absorbs any perspiration from the feet, is soft to thetouch and clings to the foot and as it will not slip on soapy surfaces,it is very useful about the house, in the bath, or at the beach.

It will be understood that the article described may be made up in manyvarious ways, as a shoe, slipper mule, scuiT or bootee and may have allor one portion made of sponge rubber and the other portions of differentmaterials. The term nonporous used to describe the skin portions 14, 16,or 32 is a'relative term as this thin rubber skin is substantially butnot absolutely non-porous. The various portions may be of differentcolors as desired and other modifications may be made and it is myintention to consider within the scope of this invention similar rubbersponge devices adapted for the similar purposes hereinbefore mentioned,unless otherwise excluded by the following appended claims.

I claim:-

1. A shoe having a sole formed of sponge rubber which is ofsubstantially uniform porosity and is provided with intercommunicatingopenings extending from the interior to the exterior whereby air andwater may freely pass therethrough in both directions and an upperportion of uniformly porous sponge rubber, said upper portion beingprovided with a surface skin to facilitate the insertion of a foot.

2. A shoe having a sole formed of sponge rubber which is ofsubstantially uniform porosity and is provided with intercommunicatingopenings extending from the interior to the exterior whereby air andwater may freely pass there through in both directions and portions ofsaid sole having a nonporous skin thereon to facilitate the insertion ofa foot.

3. A shoe having an upper and a sole formed of sponge rubber which is ofsubstantially uniform porosity and is provided with intercommunicatingopenings extending from the interior to the exterior whereby air andwater may freely pass therethrough in both directions and a smoothsurfaced skin on portions of said upper and sole to facilitate insertionof a foot therein without decreasing the porosity.

4. A shoe having a sponge rubber upper of substantially uniform porositywith relatively small intercommunicating pores which render the rubberporous and absorbtive throughout, the pores opening on the inner surfacebeing adapted to contact directly with the foot and those on theexterior being exposed to the atmosphere whereby air may pass throughthe pores into the shoe to ventilate the foot and perspiration of thefoot will be absorbed and smooth surfaced means projecting above thesurface of porous rubber to contact with the foot as it is beinginserted, said means extending longitudinally of the shoe and in thedirection of movement of the foot as it is inserted therein.

5. A sponge rubber shoe having a body portion and a sole portion, one ofsaid portions having a section of the natural skin of sponge rubber onthe inside thereof whereby insertion and removal of the foot isfacilitated, said portion having a section on the inside thereof fromwhich the skin has been removed to promote the porosity andabsorptiveness of the shoe.

6. A sponge rubber shoe having a sole portion and an upper portion, oneof said portions being formed of artificial sponge rubber, said spongerubber portion having a non-porous foot contacting portion to facilitateinsertion of the foot and a porous portion to reduce sweating and to aidventilation of the foot.

'7. A rubber shoel of the class described, comprising a sole portion andan upper portion, one of said portions being formed entirely of porousartificial sponge rubber, and integral means to facilitate the insertionof a foot in said shoe extending over a limited part of the otherportion of the shoe in contact with the foot so that the shoe issubstantially porous.

8. A rubber shoe of the class described, comprising a sole portion andan upper portion, one of said portions consisting of sponge rubber,means to secure said portions together, and means on one of saidportions to facilitate the insertion of the foot therein, said meansincluding strips extending along the natural line of movement of thefoot.

9. A shoe of the class described comprising a porous body portion ofsponge rubber and a sole portion, said body portion having an exposedsponge rubber surface, the porosity of the sponge rubber promotingventilation, said sole portion having an impervious skin on the uppersurface thereof, said skin facilitating insertion of the foot andpreventing entry of moisture through the sole.

10. A shoe of the class described comprising a porous body portion ofsponge rubber to promote ventilation and a sponge rubber sole portionhaving the natural skin of sponge rubber retained on the upper surfaceto facilitate the insertion of the foot.

ll. In a rubber shoe of the class described having an upper and a sole,said upper and said sole each having a porous absorptive sponge rubbersection contacting with the foot to promote ventilation and absorption,and a non-porous, non-absorptive section to facilitate insertion andremoval of the foot.

12. A shoe including a sole made up of a plurality of layers of rubber,said sole having a porous sponge rubber surface presented downwardly andhaving on its upper surface a layer of rubber skin in narrowlongitudinal spaced sections extending along the length of the sole andin the direction of movement of the foot in entering and leaving theshoe.

13. A sponge rubber shoe having an upper portion and a sole portion,both of said portions being formed of porous sponge rubber having aporousl outer surface, the inner surface of the upper and the solehaving a part of the integral vulcanized rubber skin retained thereon,and a part of the integral vulcanized rubber skinr removed, the integralvulcanized rubber skin being retained in strip portions along the normalpath of movement of the foot in moving into and out of the shoe tofacilitate such movement, the parts 0f the sole and upper from which theskin is removed reducing sweating and facilitating transfer of moistureand air.

HENRY C. HEBIGg.

